Memory Quote by William Faulkner
““Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders. Knows remembers believes a corridor in a big long garbled cold echoing building of dark red brick sootbleakened by more chimneys than its own, set in a grassless cinderstrewnpacked compound surrounded by smoking factory purlieus and enclosed by ten food steel-and-wire fence like a penitentiary or a zoo, where in random erratic surges, with sparrowlike childtrebling, orphans in identical and uniform blue denim in and out of remembering but in knowing constant in the bleak walls, the bleak windows where in rain soot from the yearly adjacenting chimneys streaked like black tears.””
About This Quote
Memory blurs reality, creating a labyrinth of distorted recollections that feel oppressive.
In simple terms: Memory can distort reality.
Key Takeaway
Question and clarify your memories.
Themes
memory
perception
distortion
loneliness
Mood
melancholic
introspective
conflicted
Type
literary
philosophical
When to use this quote
- traumatic recall
- confusing relationships
- creative writing
- self‑reflection
Key Concepts
cognitive psychology
philosophy
existentialism
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you differentiate memory from imagination?
- What helps you anchor in present truth?
A Different Perspective
Memory may be unreliable and painful.
![“It is...difficult to describe someone, since memories are by their nature fragmented, isolated, and arbitrary as glimpses one has at night through lighted windows. [E]very memory is turned over and over again, every word, however chance, written in the heart in the hope that memory will fulfill…” quote by Marilynne Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/dd3/marilynne-robinson-602_dreams_it-is-difficult-to-describe-someone-sinc_2711032.jpg)
